Alex Box Stadium will be ramped up as the NCAA Regionals begin on Friday. LSU baseball fans wait all year for this moment as the Tigers’ postseason run truly begins.
But for Coach Jay Johnson he just looks at this moment as the next postseason. That’s because his team just completed a 55-game postseason and they performed well enough to earn the sixth national seed and the right to host a Regional and hopefully a Super Regional.
Johnson told the media on Thursday that by treating regular season games like a postseason game, it helps once the real postseason arrives.
“I talk a lot about staying in character and playing in character, when you treat the season like the postseason than you don’t have to change when you get to the postseason and that’s been a formula for a long time that’s helped our teams and I’m hopeful that it will help this team,” Johnson said.
The LSU fan base should also help this team. The Tigers went 30-5 at Alex Box Stadium during the regular season and Tiger Nation will bring some extra juice for this weekend’s regional.
Starting first baseman Jared Jones remembers how the Box rocked during the Regionals and Super Regionals in 2023.
“It was crazy – the crowd,” he said. “That’s what I remember. I’m looking forward to it again. It means everything to me. Something I’ve dreamed about for a long time. Got a taste of it my freshman year, so super excited for it.”
Johnson commented on Thursday that he see his team is ready for the moment and pitcher Kade Anderson echoed that sentiment.
"When you get into a regional like this, you've gotta lay everything on the line and when it means the most you step up,” Anderson said. “It's really exciting for us."
The excitement begins at 2 PM against Litte Rock.
